| NOTA |
(★)(Translated by Meredith Weatherby／´NI-447´ es mismo libro.／Titulo original : 潮騒 [Shiosai]／ ´The Sound of Waves´, published in Japan under the title of ´Shiosai´, is a remarkable, pure and beautiful story of first love and courage. Winner of the 1954 Shinchosha Literary Prize, it is regarded in Japan as one of the world´s great love stories. The scene is a Japanese fishing village, where the air is rich with the salty tang of the sea, the fragrance of hemp cordage, and the smoke of charcoal fires. The modern world is far away. Nevertheless, like the tales of Daphnis and Chloe and of Aucassin and Nicolette, it is a universal story that might have happened anywhere.／ The story begins when a boy, Shinji, falls in love with a girl, Hatsue. Writing with simplicity, delicacy, and restrained lyricism, Mishima tells of how Hatsue, sent away to another island, returns to the village in spring and meets Shinji, who is entranced by her remarkable beauty.／ Because of the strict and conservative life in the old Japanese fishing village, the meetings between Shinji and Hatsue are few but memorable. Even then, tragedy in the form of gossip strikes at Shinji and Hatsue. The eventual unfolding of a depth of feeling and tenderness sparks a natural emotion all too rare in our own more complicated world.／ ◆Yukio Mishima, born in Tokyo on January 14, 1925, was probably the most spectacularly talented young Japanese writer to emerge after World War II. Mishima´s first novel was published in 1948, shortly after he graduated from Japan´s prestigious University of Tokyo School of Jurisprudence.／ Upon leaving the university, he secured a highly coveted position in the Ministry of Finance, but he resigned after just nine months to devote himself fully to his writing. From the time he put pen to paper until his widely publicized death in 1970, he was a very prolific writer, producing some two dozen novels, more than 40 plays, over 90 short stories, several poetry and travel volumes, and hundreds of essays. His mastery won him many top literary awards, among them the 1954 Shinchosha Literary Prize for his novel ´The Sound of Waves´.／ Although critics are naturally divided on which of his many works is the ultimate masterpiece, Mishima himself regarded ´The Sea of Fertility´ to be his finest effort. He completed his last volume,´The Decay of the Angel´, on the day of his death by ritual suicide on November 25, 1970. Mishima´s writings have been compared to those of Proust, Gide, and Sartre, and his obsession with courage mirrors Ernest Hemingway´s.／ Today, more than three decades since his death, Yukio Mishima remains one of the pivotal figures of modern Japanese literature.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
印刷用ページ